1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data transmitting/receiving apparatus such as a facsimile apparatus, and in detail, relates to a facsimile apparatus having a plurality of external telephone/communication lines connected to this apparatus which then may perform a plurality of facsimile transmission/reception operations in parallel.
2. Prior Art
There is a facsimile apparatus, produced by Ricoh Company, Ltd., a brand name of which is REFAX No. D-7700. This facsimile apparatus has an ISDN line and a general analog line such as an NTT telephone line connected to this apparatus which then may perform a plurality of facsimile transmission/reception operations in parallel. An operator may perform a G3 facsimile data transmission operation through the general analog line and also perform a G4 facsimile data transmission operation through the ISDN line at the same time to two different destinations.
In this facsimile apparatus, if one of the two lines is busy, that is, for example, if the analog line of the ISDN line and the general analog line are currently busy for the G3 facsimile operation, the operator may use the remaining ISDN line for the G4 facsimile operation. However, if the operator wishes to perform two different G3 facsimile operations, because the ISDN line cannot be used for the G3 facsimile operation, the operator can perform only one of these two G3 facsimile operations at a time. Therefore, only after the one of the G3 facsimile operations has been finished, the remaining one of the G3 facsimile operations can be performed.